Winter wildlife tour 6th February

With an interesting forecast for the afternoon we piled into the minibus at Salen. as we were getting in two white tailed eagles flew overhead, Great start to our day.
We were meeting one guest from the ferry so we headed to Craignure and a very quick stop on route to check for eagles. There were three, two adults and a juvenile. there was a lot to see so we planned to return when we had collected our guest. agin as she was getting into the bus a white tailed eagle flew overhead. we arrived back to see two of the eagles were still there, we did wonder if we had seen the juvenile at Craignure. Looking round we spotted widgeon, common gull, dunlin and ringed plover. Red breasted merganser and common seals. Red deer behind on the hill
The wind was starting to get quite gusty so we headed for a sheltered area for our cuppa. More red deer scattered on the hillside. Two more white tailed eagles in the distance. showing well in front of the snow covered mountains on the mainland.
A brief discussion on where to stop next and a female hen harrier appeared next to us. mmmm we will stop here then. We enjoyed watching her for a while. As we watched we heard a blackbird singing! Wonderful, spring must be around the corner.
Off to the hills, the weather was just starting to change but we did manage to see two golden eagles over the mountains. the wind was really starting to build and it was very cold. We decided to head down from the hills and took a brief stop on the way down to check a golden eagle nest site (Erie). nothing around.
Brief comfort break and onto otter watch. two spotted. hard to see as they were close to shore behind rocks. we reversed to park and have lunch in the hope they would come to us. as we were going they ran over the rocks and back into the sea. Lunch in the bus, the wind was very strong now. As always sandwich in one hand and a cup of soup in the other, the otters appeared. Hard to manage binoculars at the same time. they treated us to good show of rolling around on a small island. they then went to sleep. great to see them.
Lunch over , otters still snoozing we left them to see what else was out there while we could. We stopped to look for a dipper at one of the places we regularly see one. no dipper but two otters came swimming under the bridge we were sitting on. Fantastic, no photos they were so fast. they must have come downstream to fish in the sea.
Now the weather was really kicking in, heavy rain and high winds. Loch na keal was really wild , sea spray and big waves. So different from yesterday when it was like a mirror. We had had a great day so we decided to have our cake and cuppa at our house, much warmer and drier. I wasnt sure I could keep the coffee in the cups. So we headed for home.